How a young girl raised by Iranian parents in the suburbs of the south moves to San Francisco to become a drag queen is the driving arc of Persepolis, Texas, Maryam Farnaz Rostami’s new one-woman show at Counterpulse. 

Rostami explores the universal question of what makes us who we are through the lens of her own life, using the archetypes of the auntie, the kid, the cowboy, the pop star. Shifting through each character, she re-creates a self-flagellating mourning ritual (complete with cowboy hat) and the traditional Persian dances her family would’ve killed to see her perform. (The family’s ideal probably doesn’t include full drag.) 

Using non-linear storytelling and the construction of both gender and ethnicity, Persepolis, Texas looks at how the children of immigrants grow from transplanted roots to forge their own - sometimes unexpected - identities. 

July 15-17. Counterpulse, 1310 Mission Street. Tickets are $15-20 at counterpulse.org.